The chances are almost 100% that everyone reading this has some way to access the Google Assistant. You might even have more than one Assistant device now that most phones released in the last few years have support and Google is handing out Home Minis like they're going to expire. The original Google Home has a respectable speaker for the size, and many people use it to listen to music. Yet, for anyone who's serious about their tunes, the Home and Home Mini just don't cut it. That's where the Home Max comes in. This smart speaker is not screwing around—it's big, heavy, and incredibly loud.

The Home Max is an expensive speaker, and it's not alone in that respect—you can spend a lot on speakers of all shapes and sizes. However, Home Max could be a great option if you care deeply about audio quality and want easy Assistant integration. The Home Max is smartly designed, feature-rich, and sounds excellent, but most consumers will find it tough to justify that $400 price tag.

The Good

Setup

Home Max setup only takes a few minutes, and you're ready to rock.

Audio

Very clear, loud playback with big bass and highs. Google's EQ is pleasing to my ears. The AUX port is a nice touch if you have other devices to plug in.

Design

It's big and heavy, but the fabric makes it look inviting and understated. Has a compact power plug.

Voice

Does all the Assistant things and is very good at detecting OK Google commands even with music blasting.

The Not So Good

Touch controls

The touch bar is a bit clunky.

Price

At $400, this seems like a Google vanity project.

Design

Like other smart speakers in the Home lineup, the Google Home Max is not designed to attract attention in spite of its large size (it weighs 12 pounds). It comes in either white/gray or black colors with a fabric sheath covering the front portion where the speakers live. The traditional quartet of Assistant LEDs shine through the center of the fabric when you interact with the speaker by voice or change the volume.

Behind the fabric cover are a pair of 114mm subwoofers, two 18mm tweeters, and six Class-D amplifiers. Five microphones are spread across the surface of the Home Max as well. Around back is the power port, a USB Type-C, and AUX in. The inclusion of AUX is a nice touch if you want to pipe in audio from a non-smart piece of audio equipment. I also love that the wall end of the plug is so compact. The regular Google Home has a giant plug because it contains the power circuitry, but that's all inside the Home Max. There is also a physical mute switch on the rear of the Max, which is similar to the switch on the Home Mini. Google says it's moved to using a switch instead of the button so people can always be assured of mute status at a glance.

The fabric section of the Max is the widest part. The plastic cabinet tapers down slightly, ending in a flat back. On the top surface is a touch-sensitive region allowing you to play/pause music and change the volume. Oddly, this area is denoted only by a small gray bar in the middle of the device, but the touch sensor extends almost all the way to the edge. There's a sticker on the device when you get it that indicates the tap region in the center (play/pause) and volume control (sliding left and right). I didn't realize this was a sticker at first. I wish Google did a bit more with this sensor bar—maybe let us skip tracks? You can't even long-press to call up Assistant. I'd be fine with a few more controls printed on the housing in the name of improved functionality.

The magnetic base.

The Home Max comes with a base mounted to the bottom of the speaker, but that's not necessarily the bottom. The Max works in "landscape" or "portrait" mode, so you can peel the rubbery base off the bottom and affix it to the right side. When you prop the speaker up that way, an internal orientation sensor recognizes that and switches to mono playback (like most phones with dual speakers).

Audio and voice

You've probably noticed something quite unusual about the Google Home Max—it's not an omnidirectional device like most other smart speakers. Google designed this device from the ground up with audio quality in mind, and that meant dispensing with the myth that people are going to place a speaker in the middle of the room. Not only are most speakers a little too gadgety to work as the centerpiece of your decor, but you also need to plug them in, and that's not convenient on your coffee table. Most people put speakers on a shelf or table near a wall, and Google Home Max is prepared for that.

The five microphones I mentioned earlier aren't only for listening to your voice. They are also the key to Google's Smart Sound feature. The Home Max listens to its own sound output in order to model acoustics in the room. According to Google, placing a speaker near a wall (as most of us do) can increase the bass response and muddy the overall sound. The Home Max identifies the acoustic properties of the room based on its location almost immediately and adjusts sound output over the course of about 30 seconds. So, if you move it, the output will gradually change until it's once again true to the intended sound.

The touch bar indicator and two mics.

That's what Google says will happen. I moved the Home Max around a few times, and I didn't notice a difference in sound quality. I suppose that means Smart Sound is working? What I can say is the Home Max sounds fabulous. At lower volume levels the Max has big bass and highs, and the mids are pulled back just a touch. This is the custom EQ setting from Google (this isn't a reference monitor, so don't expect a flat EQ). The Home app includes a slider for bass and treble, and that's all. The Max really shines when you crank the volume to around 50%. The bass pumps, but you don't lose clarity across the rest of the spectrum.

When you push the Max past 50% volume, it gets almost unbelievably bassy. Very few speakers I've heard can hit the bass so hard without distorting the music, but the Max still sounds crisp and extremely good. 75% volume is about as loud as I can reasonably go. My office isn't big enough to contain more sound, and you can hear the music clearly throughout the house at that volume. The few times I pushed it a bit more in the name of science, I could detect some slight, almost not-worth-mentioning distortion. In a larger space, you could probably crank it all the way up and still have a good experience. You'd probably have to buy some very expensive, complicated enthusiast audio hardware to do any better.

LEDs light up behind the fabric to indicate the speaker is listening.

The Max also works in pairs, which you set up via the Home app. This is when you'd rotate the speaker to stand up and play in mono mode. Then one speaker gets the left channel, and the other gets the right. I can only imagine how loud they are in true stereo. For $800, I should hope the answer is "really" loud.

Another benefit of having all those microphones is that the Home Max can hear you incredibly well. Even when I'm blasting music at 75% volume, I can use Assistant voice commands. In my experience, as long as you can hear yourself saying "OK Google," so will the Home Max. As soon as it hears the hotword, the audio is turned down for the duration of your command. The Assistant voice that comes out of the Max is almost eerie sometimes. It sounds like someone is standing in the room, which is aided by Google's increasingly realistic speech synthesis

Conclusion

The Google Home Max is the best-sounding smart speaker you can purchase right now. It has all the same Assistant capabilities as the smaller members of the Home family, but the audio quality is fantastic. Tracks sound crisp, and the bass is powerful without being overbearing. I love listening to music on this device, and it won't miss Assistant commands even with the volume cranked up.

It's remarkably minimalist for being so gigantic, but the touch bar controls are a bit clunky. The "Chalk" colored speaker will probably fit most decors better than the "Charcoal" version. In either case, the fabric cover gives the speaker a cozy vibe.

All the Homes.

Does a $400 smart speaker make sense for most people? Probably not. Although, Apple is going to try and sell the HomePod for only $50 less. In that context, the Home Max seems like a real bargain. You could probably get a more flexible sound system for a similar price with some high-end bookshelf speakers and a Chromecast Audio, but it's nice having everything ready out of the box with the Home Max. This seems like a vanity project for Google, but it's a good one.

Comments

Martin

Let's be honest - at $400 it's ridiculous... Calling it "Not so good" is like saying Hitler was not such a bad person... They are ripping peoples wallets for 2 years with overpriced products. I get some people are "fans" of brands, which I find ridiculous but still... Only thing I find with a good price is Chromecast it's totally worth the money. Everything else - not so much. Especially pixels and speakers and all the bs.
But it's my PERSONAL opinion... :)

sproc

The homepod at $350 and no other option is ridiculous. And it won't even sound half as good as this.
OTOH Google isn't apple.

Matt

What makes it ridiculous? Are comparable sounding speakers available for a lot less? That might be the case - I've never heard this speaker, but I do know there are many speakers at similar or higher prices and have been for many years.

Andrew

Well, the home mini at $29 (it's always on sale, apparently) is really useful.

I'd rather have my $650 Pixel than any other phone available, including the two phones that pass $1000, and certainly more than the great-but-not-really-great $500 phones from 1+and the like. It's just a better software experience for me (plus only the iPhone X camera is comparable this phone generation, and who doesn't like to post the best photos on Instagram within your friend group?).

Like you said, Chromecast is great, and Chromecast audio is also really great (I use it way more than I use Chromecast).

I don't think they're really pricing out of the ordinary. Certainly, since they are trying to compete directly with Apple, their pricing is almost good.

Marcel Mayer

its true all speakers are overpriced.. JBL, sonos , bose , UE ..etc

instinct

It would be ridiculous if this speaker doesn't compare to a $400 (or even $300) self powered speaker. I honestly have no idea if it does.

duke1

IMO: Sonos One has better audio quality and microphone than the Google Home Max, is $200 cheaper, and is currently best bang for buck for smart speakers for now. Not to say the Google Home Max is a bad product either -- I enjoyed listening to music through Max -- but for the price range, especially for stereo setup, the audio quality isn't as good as I'd hoped. I can't wait for Google Assistant to arrive to the Sonos One!

makapav

> I can't wait for Google Assistant to arrive to the Sonos One!

You'll be waiting forever most likely.

Too bad Sonos is locked-in if you want to just 'cast' from any of the hundreds of apps or YouTube.

duke1

Google Assistant is slated to release on the Sonos One sometime 2018, according to the Verge. Let's hope they do release it.

Lars Jeppesen

"Sometime in 2018"...

There you have it folks!! lmao

YaKillaCJ

Your logic is a little flawed tho. The cost of Sonos is significantly more than Google offerings and less feature rich at that. Mainly because the Chromecast Audio is only $35 at MSRP. You can use it with any and every setup. It just doesn't make any sense to go Sonos at this point unless you are already heavily invested and I mean heavily (like over $1500 in).

That said, true enough the Max is kind of a dumb purchase at its price point.

duke1

Well of course. If I wanted to, I can hook a Chrome Cast Audio to my sound system in my home theater. I'm speaking specifically about smart speakers though, and I feel the One has an edge over Max with price and sound.

Are you sure with the aux port? I'm just sitting in front of mymnew sonos one and can't find any aux port. Beside that i would recommend the Sonos instead of the Google device. Sonos already has alexa support and Google Assistant should arrive in Q1 2018. And its a bit cheaper than Google max. Atm you can buy two Sonos one for 400€ (~480$) in germany.

duke1

Wow, I feel dumb. I own many speakers, so I mistakenly thought at the time that the One had an AUX port. Thanks for correcting me! Everything else is still true to my opinion though.

Lars Jeppesen

The experience is much worse with Sonos One. Voice recognition is very bad and hardly comparable.

Matt

Sonos One does not have an AUX port, and it probably doesn't sound as good, not because it's a bad speaker, but because it's the smallest, cheapest speaker Sonos makes.

Get over yourself ALREADY

opinions with 'probably' are stupid... cause they are fact free
and the play 1 is cheapest not the sonos 1

Matt

You should take your username advice, and it was speculation, not opinion. I have no opinion on their sounds as I've heard neither, but you are right that the One isn't the cheapest they make (provided they're still making the Play:1 and not just selling off their large stockpile), just the smallest.

Lars Jeppesen

Sonos One does not have Assistant..

I have one, and it does not.. Sonos promises, but if the quality is as bad as with Alexa, it's a horrible experience...

Cédric B

If only it had a numeric audio plug, it could be used for the tv sound and the price less hard to swallow.
At least an optical enabled Aux jack, similar to Chromecast audio out plug....

makapav

It has Aux jack but it won't give you real spatial sound that TV effects would provide. I am assuming even if you bought two - it won't split the Aux for true stereo - that's way too much to expect from a Google Vanity product/Manager.

Cédric B

I think stereo from Aux would work.But anyway analog audio won't do it for my tv.
True, no real spatial effects, but still way better than tv speakers.

Andrew

Can the USB-C port fill this role?

npaladin2000

If they can do this with the Maxx, they can figure out how to link two Home Minis together for stereo sound.

makapav

You can do it with the Homes - the Minis are probably not worth it because they just don't have enough power and spectrum support.

Andrew

Haha, yeah. Two minis would just not sound good.

YaKillaCJ

Wait 2 homes work as stereo?

I never tested it although I have an extra 1 in the box still. Decided to mount the mini in my bathroom.

Steven Mooney

I don't think you can get stereo separation with anything but the Max, but you can link the audio with any of them. I have a group set up with 3 minis, a Home, and a Home Max, so that I can have the whole house blaring if I want. It only sounds decent in the room with the Max, though.

YaKillaCJ

Ah if no sound separation, then my extra Home is stayin in the box for now. I have 4 Chromecast Audios hooked up to various surround sounds and it sounds awesome playing them all together throughout my home.

Andy

You can link two home speakers for stereo

chr0mium

Not minis though, sadly. I got an extra mini today and thought I could do this, but no dice :(

Ryan

Its not true stereo though, as in you can have channels for each. Its just multi-speaker.

Idk much about these smart speakers. But so they have Bluetooth and allow you to play music thru that? Or does it mandatory require some sort of music subscription?

RamitSuri

(Only talking about regular Home, but I believe applies to all 'Home' variants) You can play through BT and any app that has Chromecast support. Subscription not necessary. This is when playing from your phone. If you want Home to play music from a default service when you say 'Hey Google, play music', there's only Spotify, Pandora, YT Music and GP Music. Not sure if you need subscription as I have Red and have never used Spotify and Pandora.

makapav

You don't need subscription to cast from anywhere unless you are accessing premium content that needs it. You can cast from Spotify, TuneIn Radio for free.

Good_Ole_Pinocchio

Been waiting for this review, this is exactly what I've been waiting for. Definitely still want it. Can't decide if Black or White though....

There are several Chromecast soundbars from Sony, LG, Polk Audio (I reviewed the mini one a couple months ago) and they usually work great. True, no direct voice commands, but pair them with a Home Mini and you're good.

Marcel Mayer

overpriced trash

Lars Jeppesen

I'm not sure your girlfriend would want to hear that... she probably thinks you think highly of her...

I was one of those lucky people that tweeted something about the Home Max and they gave me a promo code to get it. I'm definitely not sure if I'd pay $400 for it though. The audio just isn't what I'd hoped for that price. Obviously with the size it can only push out so much bass. Maybe if it was $249.99 I'd think about it.

Indianajonze

man if they could somehow lower this by $100 and figure out how to get it working as a soundbar for a tv, they'd have a monster on their hands...

Emmet

Could you use the Line In on the Home Max from the TV? My television has an audio out for headphones and stuff.

Powsniffer0110

I suppose you could

Grey

It absolutely blows my mind that there isn't a battery in this. I can't imagine a speaker that's not in some way portable. I know the MAX is to loud for battery power but come on, it's $400. My Fugoo XL gets as loud as I need, cost over half this price, and is portable. It came out before Google Assistant was a thing and who knows if it'd even have had it, but I can't imagine spending over twice the price so it has to be plugged in all the time.

Lars Jeppesen

No, please.. no battery..
This speaker is designed to be used indoors, a battery would make it much more expensive...

Go get a JBL Link 20 if that is your desire... and let us keep our Max as it is.

Grey

It's $400. My entire point is that for $400 I expect a battery. You're a sheep if you think this is a fair price.

Lars Jeppesen

No, I want good sound quality, the price is absolutely not too high.

There are loudspeakers for every wallet. Just get a cheaper one. It won't be better but it will be cheaper.

Grey

You can get good sound quality for less than $400 dollars. If you don't think so, you're lying to yourself.

disqus_MrENMENnvf

Ehh, I got a few of those free with purchase Insignia Voice Speakers with Google Assistant & Chromecast built-in (from Best Buy during the holidays sales). They sync up, sound great and connect with Amazon Alexa, they have no issues switching from one Assistant to the other. Best of both worlds!

Lars Jeppesen

People keep talking about this being equivalent of a pair of cheap speakers and a chromcast audio + home mini.

IT IS NOT

I use that setup and it totally sucks.
Why?

You cannot control the volume of the device to which you are streaming music (chromecast audio) using the voice. Also, the google home mini can't hear you very well when another source is playing loud music (here the speakers). A Home Max is especially designed for this.

darendt

They need to lower it by 100, then I will buy it. $400 bucks is a lot considering you can get a PS4 Pro for that price.